


You Know You

by OldEmeraldEye



Category: Xena: Warrior Princess
Genre: F/F, Femslash February 2021, Modern Era, Pining, Reincarnation, Secondhand Bookshop
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-23
Updated: 2021-02-23
Packaged: 2021-03-15 06:20:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 256
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29184675
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/OldEmeraldEye/pseuds/OldEmeraldEye
Summary: The bookstore makes history seem thin, permeable even.
Relationships: Gabrielle/Xena
Kudos: 8





	You Know You

There is something about the amassed stacks of books, makeshift bookmarks and crumbling covers that makes history seem thinner, like she has always been digging through words and scripts no matter the century. Like this bookstore is where is she belongs, not just where she stops for an hour or two on her afternoons off.

The beanbag tucked away in the back corner helps too, as does the laissez-faire attitude to actual sales. It's more like a private library than a store. But there's more to it then that. Gabrielle just hasn't put her finger on what it is that _it_ is yet.

And there is the same draw to the bookstore's owner - not bookstores in general, although she has stopped in on a fair few to test out the hypothesis, just this specific one that Gabrielle has returned to every day since she first walked through the door. Xena, her name is. After the Greek, she had said, tipping her copy of the Odyssey before moving to attend to a customer.

Another customer. Because Gabrielle is a customer. There isn't - nothing more.

Gabrielle heads further in, diving into ink and fragments and worlds and surfacing, blinking when Xena flickers the lights to warn that it's closing time. Outside, through the mottled glass, streetlights are coming on. Gabrielle gathers the thin delicate pages of Sappho's work, translated into modern Greek at least two decades ago, and makes her way back to the counter.

Xena sees her off with a smile, and greets her the same way.


End file.
